‘This is a novel about how strange people deal with a baby entering their lives’ – The First Bad Man by Miranda July
The problem with The First Bad Man is kookiness. It’s too kooky. Not everyone in the world is a kook. I’ll admit that the world might be full of kooks, but there are also oddballs, perverts, weirdos and nutjobs too. July’s world is not variegated enough. And that is why The First Bad Man ultimately fails in what it sets out to do.
‘A good few really positive reviews does not mean that The Sculptor is a carved in stone classic’ – The Sculptor by Scott McCloud
On one level, The Sculptor is a graphic novel about the imperatives of art. The desire in the creative soul to do something or make something that will be remembered. The urge for immortality. It does battle with the creative impulse, the inner voice that says nothing is ever good enough. It also articulates the frustrations of art, the sense that actually settling for a different kind of life in which the frustrations of art are put to one side …
